America Post-Trump
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What does US politics look like after Trump?
Who gets to be in charge of technology? If you believe that crypto or AI or any other technology is going to fundamentally change the way that we live our lives, who gets to be in charge turns out to matter a lot. And this week on The Verge Cast, we're talking about stories about Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and even how the European government changed the way that your web browser looks every day. All that on The Verge Cast, wherever you get podcasts.
Political polarization's been rising for 40 years now, right? And at some point, I guess it can't get much worse. I don't know if that means it gets better, but at some point there might be a reaction to that.
Is it possible to talk about U.S. politics without talking about Donald Trump? That's the question I'm asking on a new show from Vox.
The idea of like a post-Trump or not exactly Trump-focused show can exist because he's not really driving any agenda items. It really does feel like so reactive.
Come 2028, America is supposedly turning the page on the current president. So who do we want to be? And what are the people and ideas that will shape our post-Trump future? That's what this podcast is about. Going deeper on politics by taking Trump out of the center and talking about politics as it relates to real life and culture and everything else. Like, culture-wise, is Timothee Chalamet properly rated, overrated, or underrated?
Oh, God, now you're going to get me in trouble.
So, from Obama's tan suit to the manosphere and everything in between, what shapes who we are? I'm Astead Herndon, and welcome to America Actually.
Okay, so I'm pumped to have two people here who are going to help us look at politics beyond Donald Trump from an expert lens. First, we have Hunter Harris, culture writer, screenwriter, and just generally coolness extraordinaire. And also Nate Silver, statistician, data whiz, and someone who's going to help us think of the specific ways that the numbers are telling us that the country's changing. Thank you both for joining us.
Thank you.
Funny thing is, I want to start actually with a story. Like, a couple months ago, we were thinking about the show and kind of what can be the organizing premise. And I was like, you know, what would be the thing that would make you most excited about a podcast? And my first thought was, I want to be Trump-free. I want to think about something that does not put him at the center. And I kind of think emotionally, I wanted to start thinking about kind of what are the seeds of who the country is beyond this guy in the middle. And when I initially kind of pitched it, there was some question about whether that is even possible, whether we can even see this political moment without foregrounding Donald Trump.
So I kind of wanted to use you all as our first real life focus group about that premise. What do you think?
How does political polarization affect America?
Like, When we think about a politics that does not center Donald Trump, is that possible? I mean, he is the president.
Look, as we gain more perspective on the Trump era, maybe he seems as much of a symptom as a cause in some ways, right? You know, the Republican Party kind of built a coalition that was maybe always a little bit unstable. And people like me, like famously in 2016, 2015, I was like, yeah, we know how this works, right? You have like the Rick Santorum's, you have the Michelle Bachman's, the people that like rise up and they're the flavor of the day. And then they dissipate when the electric gets serious, right? And so like-
Is it possible to discuss US politics without Trump?
You know, not realizing how much Republicans felt like promises have been broken by the Bush era, how unpopular things like the Romney-Ryan welfare state was, but also like obviously the political potency of populism, of xenophobia, of racism.
Yeah. I mean, what about the question of is Trump a symptom? of a broken system or the cause of breaking that system. It feels like we've been in living in that question for a while. Like, do you think culturally at this point, you feel like you know a clear answer to that?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What does US politics look like after Trump?
0:04–2:56
2
How does political polarization affect America?
2:56–3:33
3
Is it possible to discuss US politics without Trump?
3:33–4:59
4
What ideas will shape America's future beyond Trump?
4:59–8:29
5
Who are the emerging political figures in a post-Trump era?
8:29–33:52